Birthday Wishes

 Hi and welcome.

Linda Callahan is our sketch hostess at Freshly Made Sketches this week and I took a few liberties to come up with this card.

The die-cuts were from a previous crafty session so this card was reasonably simple to put together. 

The gold frame was die-cut using two oval frames stacked together.  I added it to a white card base, arranged the flowers and then added a NBUS hot-foiled sentiment on black.  

As an aside, I placed my first crafty order since January last week, in the hopes that getting new stuff will inspire me.  Fingers crossed!

Thanks for visiting.  Please check out the wonderful cards made by the rest of the design team.

Products used:

Ink:  Sage, Pastel Sunrise, Vanilla Cream, Coral Bliss (Altenew)

Cardstock:  White, Black, Sage (Spellbinders), Coral Crush, Peach Bellini, In the Buff (MFT), Cream (SSS), Matte Gold Foil

Dies:  Be Bold Blooms, Essential Stylish Ovals, You Are Everything Sentimenst BetterPress (Spellbinders)

Accessories:  Gold Hot Foil

Cheers

Karren

Flower Cart

    Hi all and welcome to my blog.  Today's card is for the latest challenge at Freshly Made Sketches where our sketch hostess is Jen Mitchell.

I flipped the topmost panel to the other side to fit better with my die-cut but other than that, I stuck pretty closely to the sketch.  This is the first time I'd put together this flower cart die and it was pretty easy.  The card base is kraft and I added some patterned paper and some thin slivers of Forest cardstock top and bottom to help define the layers.

The sentiment was white heat-embossed onto the same Forest cardstock and added to complete the card.  

Thanks so much for visiting.  Please head over and check out the fabulous cards made by the design team.

Products used:

Stamps:  Elegant Sentiments (Waffle Flower)

Ink:  Versamark, Rocky Shore, Jade, Coral Bliss, Industrial Diamond, Volcano Lake (Altenew)

Cardstock:  Neenah Desert Storm, Velvet Rose, Forest (Spellbinders), Amarena Cherry, Gravel Gray, Hot Fudge (MFT), Guava (Lawn Fawn), Ocean Tides (PTI), Grain & Grunge (Honey Bee Stamps)

Dies:  Market Cart Builder (Honey Bee Stamps), Elegant Sentiment (Waffle Flower)

Accessories:  White EP

Cheers

Karren

Big Things

Hi and welcome to my blog.  Today's card is for the latest challenge at Tic-Tac-Toe where I went with the left-hand column of Stencil-Green-Foliage.

This background panel was a mistake because I put everything upside down on the Glimmer machine so it embossed the cardstock and didn't transfer the silver foil properly.  I kept the panel for months and months because I quite like the look and thought it worked well with this stenciled and hot-foiled leaf.

The sentiment is silver embossed onto black.  I gave this card to my daughter when she ventured into a classroom for the first time on her first placement at a high school as part of her teacher training.

Thanks so much for visiting!

Products used:

Stamps:  Detailed Leaf (Pink Fresh)

Ink:  Versamark, Sea Shore set (Altenew)

Cardstock:  White Black

Dies:  Detailed Leaf Hot Foil and Die (Pink Fresh), Quadrant Backdrop Hot Foil (Pink Fresh), A2 Rectangle Stax 1 & 2 (MFT)

Accessories:  Silver hot foil, silver embossing powder, Detailed Leaf stencils

Cheers

Karren

 

Embossed Day

Hi and welcome!  Today's Freshly Made Sketch challenge was designed by Jennifer Timko and I took a literal route to come up with this card.

Please excuse the watermark.  My daughter borrowed my laptop so I had to make do with a very basic text overlay!  I pulled out Beautiful Day for this card and stamped the layering images before die-cutting.  I arranged them onto a dark gray circle die-cut and then onto a dry-embossed lighter gray panel.  I finished with a die-cut sentiment, using direct-to-paper to get the same colour shadow panel as my leaves.

Thanks so much for visiting.  Please check out the fabulous cards made by the design team.

Products used:

Stamps:  Beautiful Day (Altenew)

Ink:  Amalgam (Gina K.), Orange Sorbet, Pastel Sunrise, Canyon Clay, Misty Morning, Cloudy Sky (Altenew)

Cardstock:  White, Steel. Gray, Gravel Gray (MFT)

Dies:  Beautiful Day (Altenew), Just a Note Posh Script (Memory Box), Infinity Circles (Hero Arts)

Accessories:  Four Petal Flowers Embossing Folder (Spellbinders)

Cheers

Karren

 

Berry Boxes

Hi all and thanks for dropping by!  Today's sketch at Freshly Made Sketches was designed by Judy Rozema and at first I was at a loss for how to use it.  Then I had the idea of frames and from there it sort of became a Christmas card.

We've just finished a 4-day long weekend for Easter and, boy, was it good to have those extra two days.  I actually enjoyed a few hours in my craft room and enjoyed putting this card together.  Onto a black card base, I added three thin gold foil cardstock frames.  I added a hot-foiled sentiment into the bottom frame and then popped in some hot-foiled and stenciled leaves and berries into all three frames.

No other embellishments as there is quite a bit of gold already 😄

Thanks so much for visiting.  The design team have some fabulous cards so please head over and check them out.

Products used:

Ink:  Volcano Lake, Lagoon, Crimson, Velvet (Altenew)

Cardstock:  Black, Gold Foil Cardstock

Dies:  Winter Berries Frame Hot Foil and Die (Pink Fresh), Holiday Florals Background (Spellbinders), A2 Thin Frames (SSS)

Cheers

Karren

 

Good Things

 Hi and welcome!  Today's card uses the latest sketch from the team at Freshly Made Sketches where our hostess is Amy O'Neill.  I really feel like I phoned in my card this week.  This year my mojo has been sadly lacking and it seems that everything I try turns to crap.  So this version is completely different to what I had envisaged and came together in about 10 minutes because I was over the whole thing by this stage.

You can sort of see the sketch in my card.  The brick embossing is the horizontal panel and the washi tape is the oval element.  The sentiment is a reverse hot-foiled sentiment from my stash.

Thanks so much for visiting and apologies for the short post.

Products used:

Cardstock:  White

Dies:  Sunflowers, Wonderful Sentiments Hot Foil and Die (Pink Fresh)

Accessories:  Sunflowers Washi (Pink Fresh), Brick Embossing Folder (Tim Holtz)

Cheers

Karren

Paw Thanks

 Hi, I'm back with my card for the latest challenge at Freshly Made Sketches, where our sketch hostess this week is Narelle Farrugia.  I took the opportunity to make a thank you card for the surgeon who operated on my daughter's puppy, as he is based at a university in the North Island.

As this is for a male, I kept it clean and simple.  The white card base was embossed with the Subtle embossing folder and then I added a gray pierced square frame die-cut.  The sentiment is white-embossed onto black and the paw print was also embossed with the same embossing folder before being adhered with foam.

All in all, a very simple but heartfelt card.  Here's a photo of the patient wearing her smart new rainbow ombre sweater.  She had her stitches out last week and now you would never even know she had stitches apart from the fact her back is half shaved.

Anyway, I hope you head over and check out the fabulous cards made by the design team.

Products used:

Stamps:  Many Thanks (Altenew)

Ink:  Versamark

Cardstock:  White, Black, Amarent Cherry, Gravel Gray (MFT)

Dies:  Paw Prints, Pierced Square Frames (MFT)

Accessories:  Subtle EF (SU), White Embossing Powder

Cheers

Karren

Pastel Flowers

 Hi! Today’s card is for the latest challenge at Tic Tac Toe. I worked with the centre row to come up with this soft card. 

The dies were cut from white card stick and softly ink-blended before being arranged on a white card base.  I stamped the sentiment in the same gray ink as the leaves and called it done.

Thanks for visiting! 

Products used:

Stamps:  Elegant Sentiments (Waffle Flower)

Ink:  Pink Pearl, Buttercream, Limestone, Silver Stone (Altenew)

Cardstock:  White

Dies:  Sulfur Cosmos (Altenew)

Cheers

Karren

Puppy Thanks

 Hi!  It's my turn to design the sketch this week at Freshly Made Sketches and here's the card I made with it:

This card was made for my daughter to give to our vets who facilitated the open-heart surgery on her puppy.  I coloured the pup to look as much like Altezza as I could and used a colour combo from Colour Cubes.

Thanks so much for visiting.  The rest of the design team have made some fabulous cards so I hope you'll check then out.

Products used:

Stamps:  You Are Pawsome (SSS), I Just Miss You Puppy (Gerda Steiner)

Ink:  Amalgam (Gina K.), Versamark

Cardstock:  White, Indigo (Spellbinders), Amarena Cherry (MFT), X-Press It

Dies:  Paw Prints (MFT)

Accessories:  Copics, White Embossing Powder

Cheers

Karren

Coral Thanks

 Hi and welcome to a new challenge over at Freshly Made Sketches.  Our hostess this week is Cecile Ribon and as is typical for Cecile, she has given us a fun and unique sketch to play with.  I went pretty literal to come up with this card.

These Be Bold Bloom flowers and foliage were already in the pack from an earlier crafty session, so this card was pretty quick to put together.  At this point in time, that suits me perfectly because I am having a bit of a creative and inspiration slump at the moment.  Just riding the wave until it passes and hopefully my love of card-making will return.

On top of that, my daughter's 7-month old Spoodle puppy had to have major heart surgery this week to correct a Grade 5/6 heart murmur which would have shortened her life to months rather than years if we didn't get it done.  She had the surgery on Monday this week and is doing really well.  We are so very grateful to our vets who flew in a specialist from the North Island to undertake this very complex surgery.  I've posted a couple of photos below for anyone interested.

Thanks so much for visiting.  The DT have some fabulous cards to inspire you so please check them out.

This photo was when she was taken to the After Hours Vet for overnight care on the day of her surgery.  Obviously she was drugged to the gills, but still looking happy.

Products used:

Stamps:  Elegant Sentiments (Waffle Flower)

Ink:  Versafine Onyx Black, Sage, Pastel Sunrise, Vanilla Cream, Coral Bliss (Altenew)

Cardstock:  White, Peach Bellini, Coral Crush (MFT), Cream (SSS), Ocean Tides (PTI)

Dies:  Be Bold Blooms (Spellbinders), Blueprints 21 (MFT)

Cheers

Karren

Fishing Birthday

  Hi everyone and welcome.  It's time for a new sketch from the team over at Freshly Made Sketches and this week our sketch hostess is Jen Brum.  I used the sketch to make a birthday card for my father's upcoming 91st birthday.

I was guided by the Colour Cubes and also took a few minutes to plan out my card in the Trinity Stamps Cardmaking Sketchbook, which makes execution so much quicker!

This is a NBUS stamp and die set from Honey Bee Stamps.  I stamped, Copic-coloured and die-cut the images and then went to work on my background.  I embossed a green card-front-sized panel with the Castaway embossing folder, then lined up the brown strip to exactly match and ran that through the embossing folder.  The tiny sentiment was white heat-embossed onto a Jellybean Green strip and I added a copper metallic die-cut circle, onto which I added the images.

Thanks so much for visiting.  The DT have some gorgeous cards so I hope you'll head over and check them out.

Products used:

Stamps:  Fishing Legend (Honey Bee Stamps), Curio Labels (The Greetery)

Ink:  Amalgam (Gina K.) Versamark

Cardstock:  White, X-Press It, Forest (Spellbinders), Jellybean Green, Milk Chocolate (MFT), Copper Metallic

Dies:  Fishing Legend (Honey Bee Stamps), Infinity Circle Dies (Hero Arts)

Accessories:  Copics, White Embossing Powder, Castaway Embossing Folder (Spellbinders)

Cheers

Karren

Mum's Birthday

  Hi and welcome!  Today's sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches was designed by Kim Singdahlsen and I used it to create a birthday card for my mum.

The floral image was already stamped, stenciled and die-cut which saved a heap of time.  I used the colours from the image for my background.  I also found the embossed brickwork panel as well as the hot-foiled sentiment, so this card really only involved assembly.

Both the vertical and horizontal panels were embossed with the Subtle embossing folder for some additional dimension.  The floral image was adhered to the brickwork panel and then I used foam tape to add it to the card base.

 

Thanks so much for visiting.  Please check out the fabulous cards made by the design team.

Products used:

Stamps:  Garden Roses (Pink Fresh Studio)

Ink:  Amalgam (Gina K.), Martian and Tropical Forest sets (Altenew)

Cardstock:  White, Black, Coral Crush, Peach Bellini (MFT), Chartreuse (PTI)

Dies:  Garden Roses (Pink Fresh Studio), Hexi-Gem Sentiments (Spellbinders)

Accessories:  Mini Brick EF (Tim Holtz), Garden Roses Stencils (Pink Fresh Studio), Gold Hot Foil, Subtle EF (SU)

Cheers

Karren

Striped Blossom

Hi all and welcome to a new board over at Tic-Tac-Toe Challenge.  I've chosen the bottom row Flowers-Dots/Stripes-Green for this in-your-face card!

 

I have been forcing myself to branch out colour-wise with my cards and the use of the Colour Cubes is really helping me because there is no way on earth I would have chosen to work with this palette myself!  I really, really don't like the fuschia/orchid colour so to use it was a real challenge.  This isn't my favourite card but it's not horrible so I can live with that.

Thanks for visiting.  I hope you'll head over to the challenge and have a go yourself!

Products used:

Stamps:  Assorted Greetings (Gina K. Designs)

Ink:  Versamark

Cardstock:  White, Midnight, Tidepool, Fig, Grape (C&9), Tropical Teal (PTI)

Dies:  Cherry Blossom (Honey Bee Stamps), Embossed Edge Circles (Kat Scrappiness), Slim Stripes (Pink Fresh), Herringbone Parquet (The Greetery)

Accessories:  White EP

Cheers

Karren

Masculine 18th

 Just a quick post today as I’m running out of time to get this published.  Today’s card was made for a young man who celebrated his 18th birthday last week. 

Patterned paper, distress mics stains and my favourite number dies meant this card came together fairly quickly.

Linda Callahan is our hostess over at Freshly Made Sketches this week so pop over and check out the fabulous cards made by the design team. 

Thanks for visiting.

Products used:

Cardstock:  Milk Chocolate (MFT), White, Black, Spooktacular Patterned Paper (Honey Bee Stamps)

Dies:  By The Numbers (PTI), Hexi-Gem Sentiments (Spellbinders)

Accessories:  Fallen Acorn Mica Stain Spray (Tim Holtz), Tasteful Textile EF (SU), Gold Hot Foil

Cheers

Karren

Lavish Lilies

Hi!  I'm back with another card for the Freshly Made Sketches challenge where this week our hostess is Jen Mitchell.  I thought it was about time I did some Copic colouring so chose a MFT Colour Challenge and one of their red rubber floral images (since retired, I think) to come up with this card.

Trying to match Ripe Raspberry with Copic markers was a bit of a challenge and I think I went a bit bright, but it was the closest match I could get.  I didn't spend too long to colour this as I'm impatient, and once it was done I used my Scan N Cut to cut it out.  

Onto a white card base I added a panel of Eiffel Tower cardstock that I had run through with a Window Slats 3D embossing folder and then added a scalloped strip cut from Ripe Raspberry cardstock.

 

I finished with a white-embossed sentiment.

Thanks for visiting.  Please check out the fabulous cards made by the rest of the design team.

Products used:

Stamps:  Lavish Lilies, More Essential Sentiments (MFT)

Ink:  Versamark, Amalgam (Gina K)

Cardstock:  White, X-Press It, Ripe Raspberry, Eiffel Tower (MFT)

Dies:  Stitched Scallop Edges (MFT)

Accessories:  Copics, Window Slats EF (Altenew), White Embossing Powder

Cheers

Karren